Conversation Across The Table

“So, what brings you back to me again…well…almost after…?”

“Sshh! Quiet. Listen to the breeze,” she said, cutting her short.

“But…”

She did not reply. She just smiled and continued to run her fingers along the rim of her coffee mug.

She took a small sip and looked out at the horizon and smiled.

“Come on, stop behaving weird. So, tell me. What brings you back to me again?”

“You know what? You are brave!”

She did not reply immediately. She looked puzzled and confused.

“Whaat!? What made you say this all of a sudden?”

She heaved a deep sigh. “Because no one has ever told you how brave you are. In fact, I guess, no one will ever tell you how brave you actually have been.”

Deep silence engulfed them.

They sat silently for several minutes, looking out at the horizon.

Breaking the silence, she asked again, “Everything has a reason, doesn’t it?”

“Umm…perhaps…perhaps not. Depends,” she replied, still lost in her thoughts.

“Well, then can I say that not having a reason is also a reason in itself?”

“Technically speaking… yes, you can. Certainly you can.”

“Then…then you must certainly have a reason, I am pretty sure.”

“Why? Can’t I visit without a reason?”

“I doubt it.”

They fell silent again as a cool breeze whisked through their hair and caressed their lips.

After a few more minutes, she took out her phone and showed her some videos.

“These?” she asked, a bit shocked and a bit surprised.

“Hmm…yes, these.”

She kept looking at the videos, and after a while, she put the phone upside down on the table.

She let out a derisive snort, closed her eyes for a while, and tilted her head back towards the ceiling.

Without opening her eyes or looking at her, she said, “So…Yeah…It seems I am brave after all.”

“Didn’t I tell you? You are brave.”

She smiled, inhaled deeply, and said, “So, this is the new normal?”

“Yes! This is the new normal.”

“So, I have done nothing wrong then?”

“Technically speaking….no. But the situation, the society, is yet to accept these as the new normal. So, perhaps, you are not entirely correct.”

“Hmmm.”

“The world will change, and it will change fast. Now stop being such a crybaby and go out. You are brave, and you don’t need to fear anyone. And if you fear the world today, you will never become me…rather, say, I will never exist.”

“Hmm… You’re right. I have done nothing wrong.”

The alarm blared at full volume, waking her from sleep. After turning off the alarm, she rubbed her eyes and looked at the time. It was 6:30 in the morning.

She had been dreaming again, going back to 2010 to meet her 19-year-old self, who was on the verge of taking the extreme step after a video of her changing clothes in her hostel room went viral online, making her an object of shame across the entire university.

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